“How can I ever stay angry with you when you say stuff like that?”
I could see her trying to hold back a smile.
“We just need to take a minute. We’ll work out what to do, okay?”
She nodded. Staring down at me, she raised an eyebrow.
“You’re sitting in the boss’s chair. I mean… you know technically I’m your boss’s boss.”
I smiled as she raised one of her legs and set it on the chair in between mine. A slight change of subject, but honestly, I didn’t want to talk about that shit any longer. I wanted to make sure she was okay after her panic attack. We hadn’t had a chance to discuss it.
I leant back, staring at her. Fuck. She looked so hot right then. I tried not to think about how much I wanted to bend her over her desk.
“What’s the company policy on inter-office relationships? Am I going to get in trouble for screwing my boss’s boss?”
Her smile took on a seductive note to it. Fuck. We should not be playing this game with each other right now.
“There’s no rules against fraternising with colleagues, but we wouldn’t want anyone to think I was showing favouritism.”
Shit. Fuck. Hell, her fucking eyes were inviting me to take advantage of the situation. Was she doing this to avoid thinking about the world of shit we were in? Why did I even care when she was practically offering herself up to me on a platter?
I shook my head, smiling at her. I was not going to fuck her across her desk. I repeated that to myself over and over again as I watched her slip off the desk, turn around and place her palms on it. She looked back at me as she bent over slightly.
“Avery…”
“Isn’t this one of your fantasies?” she said, her voice low.
I’d completely forgotten I’d told her about that months ago. Fuck.
“You do realise I’ll have to go erase all of the footage unless you want security to get a surprise view of the boss getting a seeing to?”
She smirked.
“It’s lucky my husband is so handy with technology then, isn’t it?”
“You know I want to, but this isn’t the time or place.”
Not after all the shit today. We could fuck at home where I didn’t have to hide my darker desires. I’d make her feel better then. Take her pain away when we had privacy and weren’t in danger of being interrupted.
“What triggered your panic attack?”
She sighed, straightening and turning to me. I put my hand out to her. She sat in my lap and wrapped her hand around my neck, staring at me.
“Talking about what happened with my uncle and Ed. It just reminded me of everything. I guess it’s going to take a while for me to feel normal again. I don’t know if I ever will to be quite honest. I’m ready for this all to be over. I want to heal in peace and quiet rather than having to deal with all this shit.”
“You’re a lot calmer about this than I expected.”
She shrugged, giving me a half smile.
“I’m fed up of crying over what happened. I don’t want to be an emotional wreck. All that does is bring me more pain. Besides, we have more important things to worry about than the past even though I feel like it’s going to come back and haunt us.”
“The past has a funny way of catching up with you.”
“I keep worrying everything is going to blow up in our faces.”
“There’s always a possibility of that. Whatever happens, princess, remember we have each other. Even if everything goes to shit.”
The intercom buzzer went. Avery shifted in my lap, reaching over and pressing down on it.